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A FUNNY OUTLOOK

Scott Adams, the cartoonist behind the nationally syndicated strip "Dilbert," ascended a New York cabaret stage Monday night for his first-ever live show.

Armed with an overhead projector and clad in a corporate-looking shirt and tie, Adams offered a mishmash of self-deprecating remembrances, thoughts on humor and one-liners.

The one-hour show drew heavily on cartoons flashed on a screen right out of a conference room. But the audience of 450 fans -- many of whom had openly wondered beforehand whether he'd be funny in person -- howled and hooted with laughter.

"People often ask me, 'Did you ever get in trouble at the office for something you'd put in a cartoon?' Yes, I did," Adams confided to the audience, which won tickets by answering ads in newspapers and on the Internet.

Adams then showed a cartoon in which his prototype office worker, Dilbert, receives a memo. "If we are to remain competitive, you must proactively improve quality on all actionable items," reads Dilbert, who says the memo makes him "tingly all over."

The memo actually came from a vice president at Adams' ex-employer Pacific Bell, who wasn't pleased at his appearance in the strip. "I thought I disguised it," said Adams. "I added the word 'items.' "

Adams' "Dilbert" lampoons corporate life and features a bookish office worker whose tie is permanently curled, a sarcastic dog who works as a human resources director and a raft of bumbling executives.